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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Review: First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Title: First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1)
Author: Darynda Jones
Format: paperback, 310 pages
Genre: Paranormal Suspense
Published: June 7th 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Personal Shelf
Buy It: Amazon


From Book: Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (like murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?


I first saw this book on another blog I follow. When I read it was about a grim reaper I was a little skeptical, but JR Ward labeled it as a must read so I knew I had to give it a try. I pictured a grim reaper as a black-cloaked, scythe-wielding personification of death, but it turns out Charley Davidson is not the typical grim reaper.

Charley has been able to see dead people since the day she was born. She does not wear a black cloak or carry a scythe, but there is someone in the book who does. ;) Instead she wears a Scorpions hockey jersey and boxers to sleep in and uses a Bugs Bunny comforter. Charley works with her Uncle Bob, who is a detective for the police department, to help solve cases. She thinks it's easy when all you have to do is ask the dead person who killed them. 


The book starts out with Charley waking up from a sexual dream, to a phone call from Uncle Bob aka Ubie, with a dead guy in her bedroom and none of this is unusual. She gets to the crime scene, with dead guy and learns that there are three murder victims. They are all lawyers at the same firm. Not only will Charley have to solve the lawyer's murders, but she wants to find out who is in her dreams and what exactly is "The Big Bad" that shows up in her time of need but scares her half to death. Charley has the help of Cookie, who is her neighbor-slash-best-friend-slash-receptionist. Angel is also a "dead" employee who helps solve her cases involving the already departed. The demon child is one Charley tries to avoid. Through out the book we learn more and more of what Charley is and what she does for the dead, as more of them show up to pass through her to the other side.

One of the things I love about this book are the funny sayings found at the beginning of each chapter that come from Charley herself, a t-shirt, bumper sticker or somewhere else. I love the humor, it did give me a few laughs. First Grave on the Right is full of action, humor, romance and mystery, what more could one ask for in a book? Once I finished the book, I started really looking forward to book 2, Second Grave on the Left (published Aug. 16,2011). Book 3, Third Grave Dead Ahead publish date is Feb. 12, 2012.




 

 This book contains adult language and sexy scenes

1 comment:

  1. OMG! I didn't read this one right when it came out because I was skeptical about it being a Grim Reaper book! But when I did, I was so happy. The humor is great and the sayings?...as you said, very funny! I liked book 2 even better! Great review!

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